Medical advances plus computer improvements have facilitated medical image storage and retrieval. Whether images are derived as analog or digital data, and regardless of diverse methods of their origination, their computer storage in digital form is customary, even though film or paper copies may be made and stored as well.
Conversion of analog data to digital (A/D) is common, whereupon reconversion from digital data to analog (D/A) is customary--as is D/A conversion of data originated in digital form. The human eye and brain are especially well suited to detecting and interpreting fine gradations in analog images, whereas computers are especially adapted to high-speed processing of digital data.
Conversion and transmittal of data are susceptible to error. Unlike reproduced entertainment images, a reproduced medical image, for example, requires a higher level of identity with the original, or a critical aspect may become degraded in its image reproduction.
Yet methods of image conversion or of storage and retrieval may be required to handle such large volumes of data that toleration of errors may tend to become an accepted trade-off for prompt handling.
Examples of common imaging problems and remedies for them are considered in U.S. patents, as by Ichihara in U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,500; Hopkinson in U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,645; Tawara et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,283; and John in U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,817.
My identified patent teaches concatenation of individually digitized values of interest into a large integer, plus arithmetic partitioning of it into a set of terms (summands) for storage and/or further processing. Such a stored integer can be recovered and, if desired, reconverted to equivalent analog values without coarsening or loss of image detail.
The present invention extends that lossless imaging method to lossless processing of any interrelated data, including additional coding/decoding methods besides A/D and D/A conversion/reconversion.